Inventing Madness

Menlo Park

 "Soon after Mary and I were married, I rented a space in a Newark padlock factory on a monthly basis to build some instruments and perform experiments. When I no longer needed the space, I returned the keys to the landlord. My landlord then sued me because of an ordinance that made monthly renters responsible for a full year's rent. I was furious and decided to leave Newark.

"In 1875, I purchased two tracts of land in Menlo Park, part of Raritan Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey. At the time, Menlo Park was a stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad and was located about twenty-five miles south of New York City. I built the laboratory with the funds from the sale of my quadruplex telegraph. I sold the rights to the invention to Western Union for ten thousand dollars.

"With Western Union's permission, I built a duplicate of my quadruplex telegraph and kept it in my Menlo Park laboratory. The quadruplex telegraph could send messages simultaneously on a single wire, two signals in each direction. Western Union had built its first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861, mainly along railroad rights-of-way. I was now able to send and receive telegraph messages in my Menlo Park laboratory.

"As I had stated previously, my father helped supervise the building of my laboratory. It was a white-framed two-story building with two brick chimneys. The first floor contained a drafting room and library, a machine shop, a blacksmith's shop and a carpentry shop. The second floor held my immense laboratory. There were a thousand jars of chemicals housed along the walls. Kerosene lamps illuminated the space. An open rack loaded with jars of metal sulfates stood in the middle of the room. Other instruments occupied the western end of the room, with a small organ in the southwestern corner.

"My Menlo Park laboratory became the first institution set up with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation. I brought together all the tools, equipment, information and skilled artisans to turn ideas into practical inventions. I did not tell my workers how to solve problems. Instead, I expected them to think for themselves. I wanted my laboratory to have a stock of almost every conceivable material. Here is a newspaper article from 1880 that I want to show you."

Edison handed me a fragile yellowed piece of newspaper. I could barely make out the writing. The title of the article was "Menlo Park," and the article read:

Eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw, every size of needle, every kind of cord or wire, hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels, . . . silk in every texture, cocoons, various kinds of hooves, sharks' teeth, deer horns, tortoise shells, . . . cork, resin, varnish and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock's tail, amber, rubber, all ores . . .

"My laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, was finished in 1876. There I developed the electric light system and the first phonograph. I had a large home built for our family in Menlo Park, a three-story Victorian style home run by three servants and a coachman who lived in an apartment over the stable. I had a wood plank sidewalk installed connecting my two-story laboratory to my home. I continued to spend most of my days in my laboratory."

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